WILLIAM J. DREYER, Ph.D. (1928–2004) was a molecular immunologist and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) professor of biology from 1963 to 2004. He completed his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Washington in 1956. He then went to work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a National Polio Foundation postdoctoral and as a research scientist studying the genetic code. While at NIH, he invented machinery for automating biochemical analyses. In 1963, he was appointed professor in biology division of Caltech. He collaborated with J. Claude Bennett researching the genetic coding for protein structure, gene splicing and monoclonal antibodies. He developed the automated protein sequencer while he was consulting with the Spinco division of Beckman Instruments. He patented the sequencer in 1977. He died of cancer in 2004.

References

Interview with William J Dreyer, Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, 2005. http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/108/01/OH_Dreyer_W.pdf